35 Fighting the Dead

"You killed my men?!?" Screamed Marco Filoni holding his head with both hands, his legs shaking.

"Hehehe!" Cackled Skully. "Look more closely. We have over here Trisha. Don't you know her? Wasn't she, your assistant and didn't you celebrate Christmas with her, her husband, and her two sons?"

"Nooo, stop it!" Screamed Marco Filoni. The female skeleton walked slowly over to him. A fireball coming to live in her hand.

Dave saw the scene unfold. Marco Filoni wasn't in a position to fight the skeletons. Seeing people you knew for a long time and worked together with like this, was a blow to the mind no human would take lightly.

The flames in the skeleton's hand danced creating flickering shadows in its empty eye sockets. Its under and upper jaw clacked with every step it took in his direction.

Marco Filoni was still frozen in place when the skeleton finally raised his hand ready to shoot the fireball at him.

"Die and become one of them!" Said Skully with a shiver-inducing voice.

The skeleton shot the fireball. Dave was too far away to intervene.

'Scrreeeecccchhh!' Marco Filoni had activated just in time a shield type ability that worked through sound waves. It destroyed the fireball, which was less than a meter away from him and made it burst apart.

Dave heaved a sigh of relief seeing this.

Marco Filoni stopped hugging his head and was finally back on track.

"I will make you pay for what you did to them! Trisha, Jeff, and all the others. You damn monster!"

A sound wave burst from his foot and catapulted him explosively forward.

He easily evaded the horde of undead and in a matter of seconds stood in front of Skully. Marco Filoni's Hand shot forward and send a gigantic shockwave through skully's body. Skully flew 20 meters through the air until he hit the wall of a building. He slumped to the ground and lay there motionlessly.

'Is it over already? That was fast.' Thought Dave. All the undead were dead still letting their heads and jaws hang down.

Marco Filoni stepped toward the black lump on the ground where Skully lay.

"You piece of shit. This is for Trish, and this for Jeff,..." Marco Filoni shot for each name he said one soundwave attack at Skully.

Skully got pressed harder and harder against the ground and the wall behind him. Deep indents were visible on both wall and floor.

After Marco shot the 10th attack it became silent. The undead fell to the ground unable to move and even Skully seemed to be either dead or passed out.

Marco bent down and grabbed the robe trying to heave Skully up. Just when he had pulled him half upwards shot a mouth from inside the lump forward and bit him into the ear.

"Ahhhhh." Screamed Marco trying to push Skully away from him. Unfortunately, this only increased the pain in his ear. Followed by a ripping sound Skully staggered back.

Dave activated his [Enhancement Bubble] to take a closer look and to his disgust, he saw that part of Marco's ear was inside Skully's mouth.

The Necromancer chewed on it and gulped it down.

Dave felt like vomiting seeing this.

Marco Filoni lay on the ground holding his ripped ear.

"You fucking monster!" Shouted he. The pain was so big that he wasn't ready for combat.

"Hahaha. I am a Necromancer. Of course, I am a monster. I am like God. I can bring the dead back to life and kill those in my way. I am the master of the dead!" Skully started cackling again and Dave and Marco were so engrossed by the disgusting acts Skully did that they only noticed the skeletons when they were already grabbing Marco at his arms and feet.

"And now, join my ranks! Hahahaha!" Shouted Skully.

Marco tried to defend himself by shooting one soundwave after another. But unfortunately, besides pushing them back a few steps it had little effect.

Dave knew he had to do something now. Even though Marco was a top agent and much stronger than the rank 2 Skully, it was the special characteristic of a Necromancer that made them fight on par.

If Marco had kept his distance he could have easily won but now that he was grabbed at by so many undead, who felt no pain...

Furthermore, these undeads weren't of rank 1 or 2.

No, they had big parts of their original power left in their bodies and were mostly of rank 3, and one, a big colossal skeleton, was even of rank 4.

Dave didn't know how to handle this situation. On one hand, he needed the speed boost from his hero skin and on the other, he needed to be cautious around Marco Filoni, who would immediately catch him if he got the chance.

'Who cares, can't let him die, can I!'

"[Apprentice Hero's Skin]"

The hero custom materialized around Dave, totally concealing him.

He took a deep breath and decided then on what to do.

He had 3 options on hand.

First, he could knock out Skully but the fact that Marco wasn't able to do it even though he is much stronger shows that it is not that easy to accomplish.

Second, he could do a surprise attack and carry Marco inside a bubble out of the undeads' attacking range. This had the problem that if he used his bubble skills and Marco saw them, there was a slight possibility that he would one day meet Dave, the agent, and see those skills again. He wouldn't have to be a genius then to understand that Dave was the hero.

But fortunately, there was still a third way to take and even though it wasn't perfect, it was at least a way to cover his identity and have a high chance of saving Marco Filoni.

'Activate Bubble Launcher'

Dave created out of sight from Marco and Skully the launcher he used during the fight against Jet.

He created one bouncy bubble in line with 2 enhancement bubbles.

"Time to start!"

"[Enhancement Bubble]!" Dave activated the third one around himself, boosting his physical abilities.

"[Strong Movement]!"

He sprinted towards the bouncy bubble, while passing 2 times through each [Enhancement Bubble] and shot towards the group of undead.

They were currently trying to rip Marco to pieces by pulling him in 10 different directions. That wasn't a joke considering that these were former ability users and correspondingly strong!

Fortunately for Marco was Dave there to save him.

Dave headed head first for the rank four skeleton. It was so enormous that neither Skully nor Marco would see him.

He created another 2 [Enhancement Bubble]s and activated [Apprentice Hero's Punch]. He smashed with his fist through the two bubbles and the power of his attack immediately skyrocketed.

He hit the big skeleton right on its spine, that burst apart like a watermelon that was overrun by a truck.

Dave immediately canceled his Hero's Skin. If everything went smoothly then neither Skully nor Marco should have noticed it.

Being hit by that attack, the big skeleton blasted apart and smashed into the others. That, in turn, made them let go of Marco, who immediately used this chance to push them further away with a sound shockwave that had him as its epicenter.

Seeing Dave in front of him he reached out with his hand and pulled him with him into safety.

Unfortunately though, when they turned around, Skully was already out of sight and they could only guess, why direction he took.

Together with Skully, the undead, besides the rank 4 that was blasted apart by Dave, escaped as well.

Dave looked at Marco Filoni, whose face showed the regret he felt.

"Damn, I should have at least brought my colleagues back to their families." Said Marco with sorrow in his voice.

"Thanks a lot, by the way. I did a mistake there because I didn't consider that the Necromancer, as an undead, won't be seriously injured by my attacks, who rely mainly on shockwaves. My shockwaves need water to travel through the human body and create damage. Against an undead that has nearly no effect because they are dried up corpses..." Explained Marco Filoni to Dave.

Hearing this explanation Dave nodded. He finally knew, why Skully was fine even though he got massively attacked by someone much stronger than him.

If Dave thought back to his old ALC games then it was comparable with a difference in the attribute that could sometimes lead to weaker players winning against veterans!

"Let's head back. I am in big trouble. First the hero disaster and now that." Said Marco with regret visible on his face. At the moment it really wasn't working out for him anymore.

But the hardest would be to inform the families of his deceased colleagues. He would make sure that they would never get to know the truth about what happened. He would have to think up something to glorify their deaths!